


Birthday Surprise

by Thoughtyouknewr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: At least according to the Galra, Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Gen, KEITH GETS A FAMILY, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Keith had a difficult childhood, Keith is a baby galra, Keith is insecure, The Paladins miss having birthdays, They are all very concerned, Whether you want to see that as adopted or metaphorical is up for grabs, he needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 22:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18455684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thoughtyouknewr/pseuds/Thoughtyouknewr
Summary: As excitable as ever, Lance is thrilled when Keith's space-birthday is coming up. Keith is less so. Especially when Lance blurts out how old he's turning in front of the Blades. Turns out, his birthday did involve a surprise, but not for Keith.Aka: the first fic in a possible series of fics where the Galra find out Keith's age, and are Not Amused TM.





	Birthday Surprise

“Hey Keith, your fake birthday is coming up!” Lance commented excitedly from where he lounged on the couch not far away. “Aren’t you excited?”

Striding in just behind the older Blades as they entered the room, Keith frantically shook his head and waved a hand around near his neck in a “stop right now!” motion. Lance, as usual, took no notice. Pidge saw and looked faintly puzzled. 

“For my fake birthday?” Keith questioned with a bored lilt to his tone that gave away none of his anxiety. “Of course not.”

“For your what?” Ulaz asked, amused. 

“Oh Hunk thought of them,” Lance explained happily. “We haven’t really been able to keep track of how long we’ve been gone from Earth, and that makes telling how old we are really difficult. Qunitants are a little longer than our Earth days, and our calendar has twelve, slightly shorter, phoebs per Deca-phoeb. Honestly, it’s way too confusing to even _try_ to figure out Earth time.”

“But it’s human tradition to celebrate the day of your birth when it rolls around every year,” Hunk explained. “And we missed that. It’s a fun day where humans try to take it a little easier, get together with family and friends, and indulge in special foods. We’re already missing a lot of things out in space as it is, this just seemed like something we didn't necessarily _have_ to do without.”

“So I spaced out all of birthdays depending on where they are in an Earth year, and assigned everyone rough Altean equivalents,” Pidge explained. “It gives us an opportunity to take the day off, if at all possible, and just enjoy ourselves. It’s a bit of harmless fun.”

Her explanation was a little wary, obviously uncertain of what had set Keith on edge. 

“Yeah, and this one’s an important one for Kieth!” Lance cheered. Keith’s eyes went saucer wide and he started towards Lance to physically stop him from speaking, but too late to prevent- “The big two-o!”

Keith cringed hard, wanting for the ax to fall. 

“Two hundred?” Antok asked, amused. “That _is_ a momentous occasion.”

Lance stared at him blankly for a second. “ _What_?” he questioned. “Two-two _hundred_? How long do you guys _live_. Is Zarkon’s everlasting life _normal_ for your species.”

Thace frowned a little on confusion. “No. Galra generally live to about one thousand deca-phoebs. One thousand one hundred, if they’re _very_ long lived. Why? What is the human life rage?”

“Roughly a tenth of that,” Pidge responded faintly. “Living to a hundred is _old_. _Very_ old.”

“So short lived!” Ulaz exclaimed, shocked. “Why you must not even be _fifty_ yet!”

“Uh, no,” Shiro agreed. “I’m twenty five, and I’m the oldest. Hunk and Lance are twenty one.”

“Legal to drink, baby!” Lance sang. 

“And Pidge is eighteen,” Shiro finished, ignoring him. 

“I suppose your species would mature much more quickly, then,” Kolivan mused. “You would be around the age of a Galra that had lived a hundred and eighty to two hundred and fifty deca-phoebs, if you age ten times as quickly as us.”

“Wait,” Thace said sharply, understanding dawning on his face. “Wait, wait, _wait_. That means, that means Keith is actually turning-“

“Twenty,” Lance finished easily. 

All of the Blades immediately whipped around to fix stunned gazes on Keith. He ducked his head a little. This. _This_ was exactly what he was trying to avoid. 

“But it’s like you said,” he bargained before they even laid out their horror. “It’s the equivalent of being two hundred.”

“For a _human_ ,” Ulaz emphasized. “Which you are _not_.”

“I’m _half_ human,” Keith insisted. “That’s basically the same thing!”

“It is _not_ ,” Antok snapped. 

“It is if my biology seems to take basically entirely after humans!” Keith argued. 

“No,” Kolivan rumbled, extremely displeased. “It is _not_. Stars above, I’ve been sending a _kit_ into battle.” He looked faintly ill. 

Galra children were rare. And delicate. Keith had been nearly knocked off his feet by a furious parent when he engaged one of the Blade children in a light game of tag. Apparently, the rate of child survival for Galras was still as low as it had been for humans in medieval times, and any sort of vigorous play was strictly of limits until a Galra was at least a hundred. 

That had been the first time Keith was alerted to the fact that he was young for a Galra. The child he’d been playing with, who he’d thought was around five, was actually thirty seven years older than Keith himself at age fifty six. It had been a great shock, and he stammered out horrified apologies to the child’s furious mother. 

Then he’d retreated to his room and sat in contemplation for awhile. Keith had never, never meant to put a child at risk. He hadn’t even really meant to spend any time with the little one at all. The kid had just looked so _bored_ , and Keith knew that feeling so well. Even now, he sometimes had trouble sitting long periods of time concentrating on one thing. 

That thought had drawn him up short again. Keith wasn’t stupid. He knew he was half Galra, and while it didn’t affect his physical appearance that much, that didn’t mean his mental state or even his internal biology was the same. 

Certain… _quirks_ of his personality suddenly made a lot more sense to him. They were small things, things he bushed aside as the result of having to grow up too fast and never being allowed to be a child. Things he’d worked hard to hide. A slight tendency to chase after anything that moved quickly with his line of sight. A desire to hide somewhere small every time he entered a new atmosphere. The _absurd_ urge to put absolutely _everything_ in his mouth. A pull that he _ruthlessly_ shoved down to be near someone bigger and strong who could theoretically take care of him. Childish things. _Embarrassing_ things. Things he would never _dream_ of actually indulging in. 

His deep remuneration had left him with more questions than answers. He had no way of knowing what was normal for someone like him. There _was_ no one like him. It was impossible to tell what was human, what was Galra, and what was just _Keith_. He’d come out sure of only one thing: he could never tell a Galran his real age. 

And _this_ was why. The suddenly ill look on all of their faces as they contemplated exactly what his age meant. 

“Look, human children are much less fragile than Galra ones,” Keith said desperately. “And I’m not really a child anymore anyway. I grew up human. I _look_ like a mostly grown human. I act like one as well. I’m not a child.”

“You act as you’ve been taught,” Ulaz countered gently. “As all children do.”

“No, I-“

“Keith,” Thace cut him off firmly. “Imagine, for a second, that you are purely half human and half Galra. That would mean you would have a life span of half a Galra’s: five hundred years: five times as long as a human’s.”

“You’d only be the equivalent of a four year old,” Pidge breathed, her own face twisting in horror. “That’s practically a _baby_.”

“And only your conception of a _two_ year old, if he was full Galra,” Ulaz added. 

“And you don’t look grown,” Kolivan said sternly. 

“I _do_ ,” Keith insisted indignantly. “Maybe I’m a little short, but I’m not child sized.”

“Not for a human,” Antok agreed shortly. “You haven’t even grown your claws or developed set markings yet. You are an _infant_.”

“Yeah, Keith, you’re a baby,” Lance taunted gleefully. 

Keith snarled and lunged for him. Shiro caught him ‘round the waist as Lance danced happily out of the way. 

“Keith,” Shiro said softly, just the slightest reproving note in his tone. He set Keith down, but tucked the younger boy into his side.

To Keith’s bewilderment, he didn’t look all that surprised. But maybe that actually made sense in a way. He had spent the most time and been the most open with Shiro out of all the people in his life. It would hardly be surprising if his brother had noticed certain things. 

In fact, Keith probably should’ve expected it. Shiro was always there when Keith needed him, and he’d never commented on any of the strange things he did. It had made Keith feel safe, safe enough to let some of the quirks come through full force. 

“I’m not a _baby_ ,” Keith protested quietly, but strongly. “I don’t need people to treat me like I am.”

The Galra watched him for a second, ears twitching and eyes narrowing in concentration. 

“Maybe not on the battlefield,” Kolivan conceded reluctantly. “Loath though I am to admit it, you have been an incredibly valuable asset. The idea of a kit in war makes me want to murder, but you have already proven that you are capable.”

“At home, on the other hand,” Antok murmured. 

“He should join a pack,” Ulaz suggested. 

“Our pack,” Thace added enthusiastically, taking it a step further. 

“ _He_ would appreciate it if everyone stopped talking over _his_ head,” Keith cut in sharply. “He can make his own decisions. I don’t need a guardian.”

He bristled at the idea. He’d had very, _very_ bad experiences with assigned guardians. He wasn’t going there again. 

“Keith, maybe-“ Shiro started gently. 

“ _No_ ,” Keith denied instantly. “Kashi, I _can’t_. You _know_ I can’t.”

Shiro winced, but leaned back against the arm of the nearest couch, and drew Keith to stand between his legs. “I know it’s not easy, sweet one, but this won’t be like the other times. You already know these people. You know who they are and how they’re likely to treat you. I’m not saying you _have_ to go to them, but it would make me feel a lot better to know there was someone keeping an eye out for you. You’re so incredibly capable, Keith, but sometimes I wish you didn’t have to be. Everything is your choice, of course. I would never let anyone do anything you didn’t approve of. But would it be so bad to give it a try?”

Keith stared straight into his brother’s face, drowning in those worried grey eyes. 

Would it? Would it really be so bad? Would it be so horrible to not have to watch his every action to make sure it was the correct one? Would it be terrible not to come back to an empty room every night?

Shiro was right: he knew the Blades in a way he'd never known any of his foster parents. He’d seen them interact with children, and watched the wistful glimmer in their eyes. He knew why Ulaz’s hand sometimes strayed to his stomach, hovering over the womb he had never been able to fill, when he treated a child. 

Keith’s gaze flitted over the four of them. He’d watched them before as they greeted each other after long missions, a longing sort of jealousy burning low in his chest at their easy familiarity and obvious care. He’d wondered if anyone would ever care about him as much as they loved each other. 

Could he really turn that down now just because he didn’t like the connotations? Because he was embarrassed about his biology and insecure?

“You wouldn’t change how you treat me in the field, or what assignments I get sent on?” he confirmed, turning to the Blades. 

“Changing our behavior in the field would be dangerous,” Antok said. “We have rules for a reason. Breaking them would be more likely to get you hurt than treating you as we have been.”

“And quite unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to alter your assignments even if I wanted to,” Kolivan grimaced. “You are the only agent as small and non-Galra looking as you are. That affects almost all of your mission placements.”

“And I could back out at any time?” he asked. 

They hesitated. 

“Yes,” Thace finally agreed. “But only if we could know that someone else was keeping a bit closer a watch on you than anyone is now. It could be as simply as a call from one of the other Paladins every day that we’re not on a mission,” he added as it seemed like Keith might protest. “Just something to make sure you’re alright.”

Keith considered. That was…fair. If he’d suddenly found out Pidge was a child, he’d want to know someone was keeping track of her, even if it wasn’t him. 

“…Ok,” he agreed. “I would be honored to join your pack.” He’d heard another Galra say that once. It seemed like a polite thing to do. 

The Blades all suddenly purred. They crowded around him, pulling him slightly away from Shiro. Each of them took hold of his hand, and smelled the inside of his wrist. Then they rubbed the inside of their own wrists against his. He’d seen this before too. They were cementing his scent in their memories, then mixing their own with his. Pack behavior. They meant a _real_ pack, not just an arrangement where he lived with them so they knew he wasn’t getting himself into trouble. The thought warmed him. 

The other paladins stayed instinctually quiet as the Blades went through the ritual. It was only afterwards that Lance suddenly blinked and frowned.

“Wait,” he protested. “Does this mean we don’t get to have a birthday party?

And Keith laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed. Maybe this day hadn’t gone exactly as he’d planned, but he had a feeling it hadn’t gone badly either. It was too soon yet to see, but maybe, just maybe, Lance’s instance on birthdays would give Keith something he’d been missing for a long time. Only time would tell, and Keith was willing to wait and see. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I didn't want to post this with "A Boy and his Blades" because I felt like it focused too much on the paladins. I might eventually turn this into a series as mentioned in the summary. If you're interested, you could throw prompts for different ways the Blades could find out that Keith is a child at me :)
> 
> Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


End file.
